Is there a Rhythm of the Rain? An analysis of weather in popular music

Sally Brown; Karen L. Aplin; Katie Jenkins; Sarah Mander; Claire Walsh; Paul D. Williams

doi:10.1002/wea.2464

Is there a Rhythm of the Rain? An analysis of weather in popular music

Sally Brown^*, Karen L. Aplin, Katie Jenkins, Sarah Mander, Claire Walsh, Paul D. Williams

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article (Specialist Publication)

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Weather is frequently used in music to frame events and emotions, yet quantitative analyses are rare. From a collated base set of 759 weather-related songs, 419 were analysed based on listings from a karaoke database. This article analyses the 20 weather types described, frequency of occurrence, genre, keys, mimicry, lyrics and songwriters. Vocals were the principal means of communicating weather: sunshine was the most common, followed by rain, with weather depictions linked to the emotions of the song. Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the most weather-related songs, partly following their experiences at the time of writing.

Original language	English
Pages	198-204
Number of pages	7
Volume	70
No.	7
Specialist publication	Weather
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/wea.2464
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2015

Keywords

keys
lyrics
Music
rain
songs
sun
weather

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title = "Is there a Rhythm of the Rain? An analysis of weather in popular music",

abstract = "Weather is frequently used in music to frame events and emotions, yet quantitative analyses are rare. From a collated base set of 759 weather-related songs, 419 were analysed based on listings from a karaoke database. This article analyses the 20 weather types described, frequency of occurrence, genre, keys, mimicry, lyrics and songwriters. Vocals were the principal means of communicating weather: sunshine was the most common, followed by rain, with weather depictions linked to the emotions of the song. Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the most weather-related songs, partly following their experiences at the time of writing.",

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AU - Aplin, Karen L.

AU - Jenkins, Katie

AU - Mander, Sarah

AU - Walsh, Claire

AU - Williams, Paul D.

PY - 2015/1/1

Y1 - 2015/1/1

N2 - Weather is frequently used in music to frame events and emotions, yet quantitative analyses are rare. From a collated base set of 759 weather-related songs, 419 were analysed based on listings from a karaoke database. This article analyses the 20 weather types described, frequency of occurrence, genre, keys, mimicry, lyrics and songwriters. Vocals were the principal means of communicating weather: sunshine was the most common, followed by rain, with weather depictions linked to the emotions of the song. Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the most weather-related songs, partly following their experiences at the time of writing.

AB - Weather is frequently used in music to frame events and emotions, yet quantitative analyses are rare. From a collated base set of 759 weather-related songs, 419 were analysed based on listings from a karaoke database. This article analyses the 20 weather types described, frequency of occurrence, genre, keys, mimicry, lyrics and songwriters. Vocals were the principal means of communicating weather: sunshine was the most common, followed by rain, with weather depictions linked to the emotions of the song. Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the most weather-related songs, partly following their experiences at the time of writing.

KW - keys

KW - lyrics

KW - Music

KW - rain

KW - songs

KW - sun

KW - weather

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M3 - Article (Specialist Publication)

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VL - 70

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JO - Weather

JF - Weather

ER -

Is there a Rhythm of the Rain? An analysis of weather in popular music

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Keywords

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